Supercomputer to be built in Bristol to drive AI innovation

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, has announced that a new supercomputer is to be built in Bristol in an attempt to drive pioneering AI research and innovation in the UK.

The University of Bristol will host the new AI Research Resource (AIRR), which will serve as a national facility to help researchers maximise the potential of AI and support critical work into the potential and safe use of the technology.

The new AIRR will be called Isambard-AI and is intended to vastly increase the UK’s compute capacity and therefore achieve the UK’s AI ambitions and secure its place as a world-leader in harnessing the rapidly developing technology.

The cluster will be made up of thousands of state-of-the-art graphics processing units (GPUs) and will be able to train the large language models that are at the forefront of AI research and development today.

Science, innovation and technology secretary Michelle Donelan said: "We are backing the future of British innovation, investing in a world-leading AI Research Resource in Bristol that will catalyse scientific discovery and keep the UK at the forefront of AI development.

"The Isambard-AI cluster will be one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, and will help industry experts and researchers harness the game-changing potential of AI, including through the mission-critical work of our Frontier AI Taskforce."

Simon McIntosh-Smith, Professor of High Performance Computing at the University of Bristol and project lead, said: "We’re delighted to be chosen as the site to host the UK’s first ever Artificial Intelligence Research Resource.

"Isambard-AI will be one of the world’s first, large-scale, open AI supercomputers, and builds on our expertise designing and operating cutting-edge computational facilities, such as the incoming Isambard 3."

Professor Phil Taylor, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise at the University of Bristol, said: "AI is expected to be as important as the steam age, with ramifications across almost every area of academia and industry. Bristol’s proud to be at the forefront of this revolution.

"To be selected to host a new national AI supercomputer speaks to the University’s cutting-edge research into AI and machine learning.

"We have unique expertise in rapidly building and deploying large-scale research computing infrastructure and we’re excited to play an integral part in establishing the UK as an international hub for AI."

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay